{"id":6550,"date":"2009-12-04T11:34:06","date_gmt":"2009-12-04T16:34:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/anglicansamizdat.wordpress.com\/?p=6550"},"modified":"2009-12-04T11:34:06","modified_gmt":"2009-12-04T16:34:06","slug":"alberta-judge-rules-anti-gay-letter-not-hate-speech-overturns-ruling","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/alberta-judge-rules-anti-gay-letter-not-hate-speech-overturns-ruling\/","title":{"rendered":"Alberta judge rules anti-gay letter not hate speech, overturns ruling"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rev. Stephen Boissoin published a letter that was ruled a \u201chate crime\u201d by the Alberta Human Rights Commission. The ruling has been overturned<\/a>:<\/p>\n

EDMONTON – A Court of Queen’s Bench judge has ruled an anti-gay letter written by a former Alberta pastor in 2002 was not a hate crime and is allowed under freedom of speech.<\/p>\n

Justice E.C. Wilson overturned a 2008 ruling by the Alberta Human Rights Commission that the letter by Stephen Boissoin that was published in the Red Deer Advocate broke provincial law.<\/p>\n

At the time, the commission said it may even have played a role in the beating of a gay teenager two weeks after it was published.<\/p>\n

The commission had ordered Boissoin to refrain from making disparaging remarks about homosexuals and to pay the complainant, former Red Deer high school teacher Darren Lund, $5,000 in damages.<\/p>\n

Neither order can now be enforced, as Wilson declared them “unlawful or unconstitutional.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

You can read the entire letter here<\/a>; it begins:<\/p>\n

The following is not intended for those who are suffering from an unwanted sexual identity crisis. For you, I have understanding, care, compassion and tolerance. I sympathize with you and offer you my love and fellowship. I prayerfully beseech you to seek help, and I assure you that your present enslavement to homosexuality can be remedied. Many outspoken, former homosexuals are free today.<\/p>\n

Instead, this is aimed precisely at every individual that in any way supports the homosexual machine that has been mercilessly gaining ground in our society since the 1960s. I cannot pity you any longer and remain inactive. You have caused far too much damage.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Darren Lund was a schoolteacher when he made the initial complaint; he is now \u00a0an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education, University of Calgary where his speciality is social justice issues in schools and communities<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Lund is a bit of a misery: in the spirit of keeping Christ out of Christmas, he doesn\u2019t like<\/a> Operation Christmas Child<\/a> because the help it provides to children is tainted with evangelism; and he believes 9\/11 was by caused by a lack of respect for the religion \u2013 Islam – of \u201cothers\u201d. Lund also appears to be a racist, since he subscribes to the canard<\/a> that racism is the exclusive failing of white people.<\/p>\n

Thus, he is quite at home preaching<\/a> in the United Church of Canada\u00a0 where he is wont to intone piously on \u201cdiversity<\/a>\u201d and critical approaches to counter racism, sexism, homophobia or other forms of discrimination and oppression.<\/em><\/p>\n

Altogether, Darren Lund is a colossal bore.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rev. Stephen Boissoin published a letter that was ruled a \u201chate crime\u201d by the Alberta Human Rights Commission. The ruling has been overturned: EDMONTON – A Court of Queen’s Bench judge has ruled an anti-gay letter written by a former … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[177],"tags":[774,2167],"class_list":["post-6550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-homosexuality","tag-free-speech","tag-homosexuality"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6550"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6550\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.anglicansamizdat.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}